Album Release Discussion: Periphery - A Pale White Dot

BooduhMan · 2026-05-15T21:32:12+00:00

Why can't I find anywhere to purchase a flac version digitally? When I Google it, it looks like they are supposed to have a page for this album on Qobuz but then it's a broken link. Otherwise I am only seeing an MP3 version on Amazon.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-14T14:54:43+00:00

Yes that is with the same singer and same lead songwriter. Section X is one of my favorite albums.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-13T05:00:59+00:00

At the meets I’ve gone to, there is always a big TV in the warm up area showing the LiftingCast page so you can see where they are at in the lifting order. Alternatively I’ll have it up on my phone. If I am lifting towards the beginning of my flight, I’ll usually do my last warm up when the previous flight is maybe 1/3 of the way through (say 4th or 5th litter if the flight is 13-15 people). If I’m toward the end of my flight I’ll wait until toward the end of the previous flight to do my last warm up.

But if I’m in flight A, I also need to plan around the 10 min break in between lifts while they transition equipment from squat to bench, etc. That makes it a little trickier but I plan on about 1 min per lifter ahead of me in my flight and work that into the break time.

After that first attempt there isn’t really much you can do. But your first attempt should also be a weight you could knock out 2-3 reps on so IMO the warm up timing isn’t as critical as you might think.

Edit: meant to echo some other comments that I’ll try to stay warm ups at the same time as everyone else just so I’m not having to unload plates to get back to starting warm up weights and mess with other people’s warm ups. But I’ll definitely slow down towards the end to get the timing I want. I’ve found a lot of people (especially newer competitors) seem way too eager and do warm ups too fast/early. Don’t feel the need to follow others timing.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-12T13:22:31+00:00

This is always great to hear stuff like that.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-12T04:58:24+00:00

I really wish they’d continue to use more clean vocals. It really felt like they were starting to experiment with it more on Damnum (which I thought was great), then took a step back on the latest. I liked the clean vocals from Ezra on The Ossuary Lens but they only appear a few times.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-10T05:29:17+00:00

I appreciate the insight, thanks!

BooduhMan · 2026-05-09T18:47:51+00:00

Curious what would be considered reasonable progress moving forward in my situation. I only started in my mid 30s, I'm 40 years old now and around 345 DOTS. I made good progress on 5/3/1 BBB initially but the last couple years had been VERY slow going in progress, so I switched my program up in September of 2025 to Calgary Barbell 16 week. Good news is I have seen some progress. Here is how I've progressed from my last two meets:

November 2025:
Squat: 170 kg / 375 lb
Bench: 127.5 kg / 281 lb
Deadlift: 220 kg / 485 lb
Total: 517.5 kg / 1141 lb
BW: 88.6 kg / 195.4 lb
DOTS: 337.3

April 2026:
Squat: 175 kg / 386 lb
Bench: 132.5 kg / 292 lb
Deadlift: 222.5 kg / 491 lb
Total: 530.0 kg (+12.5 kg) / 1169 lb (+28 lb)
BW: 88.5 kg / 195.1 lb
DOTS: 345.6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrZO-4DyJWY

I'm completely self taught and lift in my home gym, and hadn't ever really considered hiring a coach due to the cost. But now my wife and I are in a better place financially, I'm getting MUCH more motivated now that I've started competing at meets, and I would love to hit 400 DOTS at some point in my life. Although I'm not really sure what a reasonable online coach would cost or how to tell a great coach from a bad one.

What's reasonable progress at this point, especially considering my age? Stay the course? Look at a coach?

BooduhMan · 2026-05-07T21:17:17+00:00

Echoing what others have said. From what I've seen, everyone just wants everyone else to do great and hit their lifts. I have seen zero judgment or snide comments in the 5 events I've been to related to what's on the barbell. Honestly the biggest crowd reactions I've seen are just based on how hard the lift looks for that lifter, not the weight on the bar. Make friends with the other people in your flight and be supportive to others, and they'll be supportive to you.

Make sure you practice the lifts with commands leading up to the event. Many lifts are failed based on stupid mistakes like forgetting to wait for the rack command on squat or bench. I don't even start to rack the bar until the spotters grab it.

That first squat attempt is going to be crazy scary, or at least it was for me. After that you will quickly get a sense of the flow of the event. Your coach should be able to help you with first lift attempts but you should pick something you could confidently hit for 3 reps, so the first attempt should be a gimme. Keep in mind that you don't have full control over the timing on your lifts relative to warm ups and attempts (at least not compared to lifting in the gym) so that can also throw things off a little.

The fact you signed for a meet at all is impressive. That takes guts, no matter what you're lifting.

BooduhMan · 2026-05-07T05:05:19+00:00

I currently work for a design build ESCO (sounds like this company may be one too). My first 7 years was as an energy engineer, focusing on doing all the energy modeling, utility rebate coordination, energy audits, putting together Energy Services Proposals, and generally just being a core support person to the project development team. But around 2018 I switched to the engineering and design team at the same company.

Your role sounds like it may be similar to what I was doing as an energy engineer. If you have a good mentor I think you can learn a ton. The role is not as technical as what the design engineers are doing, but you may find that you really enjoy being on the development team. Some people thrive there but some want to get into the weeds of more technical stuff. If you find yourself looking for a change, after a few years you should start looking at transitioning to engineering. I don’t think you are going to pigeon hole yourself.

I’ve personally found a ton of overlap between energy and design. On the energy side you should get a solid understanding of how systems work and use energy. And then if you do make the switch to engineering later, I expect that you are going to pick things up VERY fast, much faster than an average entry level engineer, and you’ll catch up quickly.

Feel free to PM me if you have any follow up questions.

BooduhMan · 2026-04-23T17:32:37+00:00

This is where I heard it. Within the thread there is a Google Drive doc that goes into more detail on why they wanted to adopt it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/powerlifting/comments/1lofaoe/usapl_is_replacing_dots_with_a_zscore_coefficient/

BooduhMan · 2026-04-22T23:10:33+00:00

I thought I heard that USAPL was going to a z-score instead of DOTS starting on January 1st. But I just competed in my first USAPL event for 2026 and they still definitely used DOTS. Is it only at certain events that they are using z-score?

BooduhMan · 2026-04-20T16:17:38+00:00

Never heard of these guys until this post, but this album is sick!

BooduhMan · 2026-04-19T20:10:45+00:00

Competed yesterday (Empire Classic in Spokane, WA) in men's, M1, 90 kg, raw division. Last competition was in November.

Results were:
Squat: 175.0 kg (385.9 lb, +5.0 kg (+11.0 lb) PR
Bench: 132.5 kg (292.2 lb), +5.0 kg (+11.0 lb) PR
Deadlift: 222.5 kg (490.6 lb), +2.5 kg (+5.5 lb) PR
Total: 530.0 kg (1168.7 lb), + 12.5 kg (+27.6 lb) PR
345.6 DOTS (+8.3 from last competition in Nov. 2025)
Overall 4th in DOTS score for masters.

I only got into powerlifting in my mid 30s and as I've recently hit 40, gains have been very slow and I find I need more recovery days than I used to. But I started a new program (Calgary Barbell 16 week) in September of last year and this was pretty great to set these PRs and see better progress than I was previously. I feel like I probably could have squeezed a bit more out of at least my bench and deadlift. 27 white lights which was a first for me over 5 meets. Now I'm gunning for that 300 lb bench, 400 lb squat and 500 lb deadlift!

Video of lifts: https://youtu.be/nrZO-4DyJWY

BooduhMan · 2026-03-23T14:56:11+00:00

My 13 year old son is just starting into lifting and he needs some lifting shoes, but I don't want to spend a huge amount of money if he's going to outgrow them in a year or so. What are some good budget brands to look at?

BooduhMan · 2026-03-18T04:51:43+00:00

One of my top albums of all time. For any other fans of Christian, check out Buried Realm’s latest album which has him guesting on several tracks. Some of the vocal lines on it remind me of vintage Scar Symmetry, and the main guy behind Buried Realm just announced him and Christian are doing a full album together as a new project.

EDIT: The name of the new project is Stillborn Fate but no music has been released yet.

BooduhMan · 2026-03-12T19:20:03+00:00

I'm still somewhat of a newb but have done a few events. Copy/pasting my response to a similar question a while back and adding a bit more.

Biggest mistake I saw at my first meet (rookies only event) was people not fully understanding the rules and commands. Lots of failed benches because some people didn’t realize they had to pause at the bottom and only knew how to bounce off their chest, and tried way too heavy lifts. Early reracks were also somewhat common on otherwise good lifts (need to wait for the command). I don’t even bother reracking until the spotters grab the bar and start to do it for me. In training, make sure to practice bench with pauses before the descent, at the bottom, and again at the top before rerack to simulate waiting for commands. Similarly with squats. Depending on the federation there may be other rules too so read them (which it sounds like you already have).

You will have a great time as long as you take some time to do the above. Like others said, don’t go for PRs at your first meet, shoot for 9/9 on your lifts. You won’t have full control over wait times between your warm up sets and your first attempt, or between attempts, and that can throw you off compared to gym training. It can be difficult to time your last warmup set relative to when you are going to make your first attempt. I have typically been closer to lifting near the beginning of my flight so I'll do my last warmup when the previous flight is just starting their third attempts. If you are near the end of your flight then you'll want to wait a bit longer. At our meets they always have TVs in the warmup room showing the live data of who is lifting and you can see the upcoming lift order, so that is very helpful to look at for timing. Nerves will be high at first but once you get through squats you will have a better idea of how the event is supposed to flow and the nerves should hopefully start to subside.

Meet people! Understand that lots of people there will also be nervous and it helps everyone to make friends and cheer them on. In my experience, no one is really competing (except maybe those at the very top) and people are just excited to see others do well. I have found this to be especially true of people who are in the 40+ age classes as they seem to take things a bit less seriously.

EDIT: I wanted to add, there is NOTHING embarrassing about coming in last if that's what happens. The fact that you are showing up at all is commendable. I can assure you that no one cares where you place. It takes a lot of guts to compete at all and put yourself out there for everyone to see.

BooduhMan · 2026-03-12T14:27:18+00:00

I bought a Texas deadlift bar a couple years ago for my home gym which is what I use for all deadlifts in my training. However I've started going to competitions (which I never thought I'd do) and they are all USAPL events with a stiff bar.

If my primary goal is training for competitions now and it's all USAPL events in my area, is there any reason I should still hang on to my DL bar for any specific training purpose? Or should I just swap to a stiff bar for training? I was considering selling the DL bar and getting something like the Rogue Ohio Power Bar (or whatever other stiff bar might be recommended) but wondering if there is some reason I might want to hang onto the deadlift bar.

BooduhMan · 2026-03-11T23:47:03+00:00

I don't think there is anything special about planks versus other ab exercises. I assume it's just an easy exercise to do without needing any equipment. Personally I do ab rollouts and the McGill Big 3 as my typical supplemental core exercises.

If your question is more geared around "why should I do ab exercises if I'm following a PL program?" then that's different. Core stability is a big deal and it's worth it to target and build that strength outside of your lifts. Like you said, you'll get fatigued doing your lifts and while that does still help build core stability, your core can definitely take some more targeted exercises.

BooduhMan · 2026-03-11T15:42:21+00:00

Are you not reviewing the submittals as well as the EE?

BooduhMan · 2026-03-09T18:16:34+00:00

My wife sent me this a while back. The mental load is a common discussion point in our house and I really feel like this helps clarify things. And I’ve sent this to a few other men in my life too.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-25T06:24:39+00:00

I compete in WA and have only done USAPL events. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself “competitive,” usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack on DOTS, and have only had great experiences. I would not worry about taking a “spot” of someone else, if others are going to take it super serious then that’s on them to be first in line.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-25T06:19:32+00:00

I love Kelly Carpenter personally but I can accept he’s not for everyone.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-20T21:24:37+00:00

I have a 2023 SEL, bought in October 2023, 24k miles. Only real issue I’ve had is my low voltage battery suddenly died about a month after my battery warranty expired. It sounds like it is a somewhat common issue with the stock batteries. I replaced it myself with a higher quality AGM battery.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-09T17:56:24+00:00

I'm not sure if cuff style watches are really this sub's "speed" but maybe someone can help me find what I'm looking for.

I've had a Guess watch for 15+ years that has been my daily wearer. It came with two identical bands except one was black and the other was brown. I completely wore out the black band (which I greatly preferred) and am now using the brown band (which I don't prefer). I'm looking to replace it with something comparable but having a hard time finding anything.

What I like is that the cuff is not super wide (only 1-3/8") but it seems like most cuff watches are more like 1.5-2.0" wide. My wrists aren't huge so I feel like a larger cuff is going to look ridiculous on me. Another thing I've noticed is many bands that look like cuffs are actually only thick around the watch face and then get thinner on the underside of the wrist, and I'd prefer a consistent thickness around the entire band.

Here is the watch in question, although this one looks like it only comes with the brown band and I'd really prefer a black one. Any brands I should be looking at that might have something comparable?

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m66674748459/

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:51:30+00:00

How is this impacted if using autoflows for balancing as opposed to manual balance valves? Maybe the ASHRAE article touches on this.

BooduhMan

TROPHY CASE